God’s Dwelling Place

Pentecost 9 – July 21, 2024

Jeremiah 25:1-6
Psalm 23
Ephesians 2:11-22
Mark 6:30-34, 53-56

There are three themes that run through our lesson from Ephesians today. They are unity, peace, and community. Paul is predominately talking to gentiles here – they were the ones who made up most of the Christians in Ephesus. He begins by reminding the gentiles that they did not have access to Christ and they were aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, strangers to God’s covenant of promise, and having no hope. They were the uncircumcised, separated from the circumcised – the lawless from the Law abiding. This separation then brought enmity between them and the Israelites. But now, through Christ, this wall that once separated them has been torn down. No longer are their two people in God’s eyes – Jew and gentile. Because through Christ all have been made one. Paul does remind us that this is entirely the work of Jesus. Without his work we all would still be divided and us gentiles cut off from the gifts of God first given to the Jews. 

Paul’s second theme here is that Christ is our peace. Since Christ, through his blood, has broken down that wall that divided us there is no longer any enmity between us. We who once were two peoples are now one humanity living in the peace that is Christ. Paul tells us that this dividing wall was the Law. He reminds us of that but calling the two groups the circumcised and the uncircumcised. Not only has the requirement of circumcision been revoked but the whole Law was replaced by the new command of love. 

This brings us to Paul’s third theme, community. This new community is built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets. This is a bit strange to our ears. We usually think about our community built upon Christ. Paul is saying that the foundation is the Word of God given to us by the apostles and prophets. Christ, as this translation says, is the corner stone. Another way to translate the Greek would be to call Christ the keystone. Which may actually be what Paul is saying. Christ is the one who brought unity and is peace to the world.

What does all of this mean to us? It reminds us that through his blood Christ has made us into something that we cannot be on our own. Left to ourselves we tend to divide the world into us and them. We base this upon arbitrary criteria: the color of our skin, our income, our sexual identity, our education, our nationality, our political beliefs. If we truly are the community built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets and held together by Christ we will work to break down these human walls to bring to the world the Word of God who is our peace. This is not an easy task. You can even claim that it is impossible for us. But we do not do it alone, we do it together as the dwelling place of God. It does not have to be any world shaking event it is a kind word to someone having a difficult time. It is our sharing of what God has given us – ourselves, our time, and our possessions. It is praying for others even our enemies. There are so many opportunities for us each day to share the peace of Christ with others and we can spend our whole time in the presence of Jesus. Take time to share the peace of God that you have been graciously given by the sacrifice of Jesus.